Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose, Opening, part 5, sentence 101
Then the men made ready their arrows and shot at him, but the points were turned on his thick hide, and the barbs would not bite upon him, for the shafts shivered in pieces, and the head but leapt again wherever it hit.
Who acts: men, barbs, head · What happens: make, shoot, turn, not bite, shiver, leapt · To what, where: ready arrows, points, thick hide, shafts, pieces
This is a sentence of «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, barbs, head), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 made | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 men | det |
| 3 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 made | nsubj |
| 4 | made | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | ready | ready | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 arrows | amod |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 arrows | nmod:poss |
| 7 | arrows | arrow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 made | obj |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 shot | cc |
| 9 | shot | shoot | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 made | conj |
| 10 | at | at | ADP | _ | 11 him | case |
| 11 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 shot | obl |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 turned | punct |
| 13 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 17 turned | cc |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 points | det |
| 15 | points | point | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 turned | nsubj:pass |
| 16 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 turned | aux:pass |
| 17 | turned | turn | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 made | conj |
| 18 | on | on | ADP | _ | 21 hide | case |
| 19 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 21 hide | nmod:poss |
| 20 | thick | thick | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 hide | amod |
| 21 | hide | hide | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 turned | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 bite | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 bite | cc |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 barbs | det |
| 25 | barbs | barb | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 bite | nsubj |
| 26 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 28 bite | aux |
| 27 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 28 bite | advmod |
| 28 | bite | bite | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 made | conj |
| 29 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 30 him | case |
| 30 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 bite | obl |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 shafts | punct |
| 32 | for | for | ADP | _ | 34 shafts | case |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 shafts | det |
| 34 | shafts | shaft | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 bite | parataxis |
| 35 | shivered | shiver | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 34 shafts | acl |
| 36 | in | in | ADP | _ | 37 pieces | case |
| 37 | pieces | piece | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 shivered | obl |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 leapt | punct |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 leapt | cc |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 head | det |
| 41 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 leapt | nsubj |
| 42 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 43 leapt | cc |
| 43 | leapt | leapt | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 made | parataxis |
| 44 | again | again | ADV | _ | 43 leapt | advmod |
| 45 | wherever | wherever | ADV | PronType=Int | 47 hit | advmod |
| 46 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 47 hit | nsubj |
| 47 | hit | hit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 43 leapt | advcl |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 made | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | make | past | the men | hounds's ready arrows | then | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent arrow=Product | |||
| 2 | shoot | past | the men not said here | at man | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent at he=Destination | ||||
| 3 | turn | past · passive | the points | man's thick hide | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 4 | not bite | would | the barbs | upon man; the shafts parataxis | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 5 | shiver | participle | the shafts not said here | pieces | vn body_internal_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 6 | leapt | infinitive | the head | again | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | hit | past | head | wherever property | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.
Text: «Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose» by Jessie L. Weston, Project Gutenberg book 66084 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66084/5/101/